Most of the alleged abuse dates back to the 1990s, but some is said to have happened in the 1980s. In many cases, it’s alleged the nuns were assaulted as they confessed to their sins in university classrooms.

‘It is also difficult to get rid of the opinion that it is always the woman who seduces the man, and not vice versa,’ a spokesman for the Center for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University, a leading think tank, said.